Pause the Game Set to Debut on June 12

Dr. Donnie Strack sprinted by the inside hallways of Chesapeake Power Area, dodging ushers and enviornment employees, gamers and coaches on his option to heart courtroom. Simply earlier than the Thunder’s recreation in opposition to the Utah Jazz on March 11, 2023 was set to tip off, Strack made his message clear to the three NBA officers on the ground.

“We have to pause the sport.”

OKCThunder Movies is debuting its sixth movie, Pause the Recreation, on June 12 at 8 p.m. CT at Booker T. Washington Park in downtown Oklahoma Metropolis as part of the 2023 deadCenter Movie Pageant. The displaying shall be outdoor and free to the general public. It’s OKCThunder Movies’ fourth straight undertaking to debut at deadCenter over the previous 4 years (The On a regular basis Saint, Rising up George and Mr. Thunder). All the OKC Thunder Movies tasks may be discovered at okcthunderfilms.com.

“At OKCThunder Movies, we’re thrilled to proceed our reference to deadCenter to have the ability to deliver to life the tales of our group and our individuals,” mentioned Dan Mahoney, Thunder Vice President of Broadcasting and Company Communications, and OKCThunder Movies Govt Producer. “Every year we attempt to problem ourselves to current this stage of storytelling in new and artistic methods.”

The 26-minute documentary makes use of interviews from 24 those who had been essential within the decision-making and end result of the night that modified the nation’s understanding of the worldwide pandemic. OKCThunder Movies poured by 747 minutes of interviews, all shot with an rising movie approach that enables topics to look immediately into the digital camera, offering an intimate expertise for the viewer. The documentary additionally incorporates dozens of angles of never-before-seen footage from inside Chesapeake Power Area, together with in-house and tv broadcast cameras together with drone and cellphone footage.

Inserting viewers again within the days main as much as March 11, Pause the Recreation returns to the state of innocence and uncertainty when it got here to the understanding of COVID-19, starting with the Thunder’s east coast highway journey from March 4 by 8 of 2023. Paradoxically, the Jazz had accomplished the identical highway journey simply previous to the Thunder, utilizing the identical locker rooms, follow gyms and resorts alongside the way in which.

With an underlying sense of foreboding percolating beneath, Pause the Recreation then proceeds to trace the motion of key personnel all through the day on March 11, together with the Thunder’s entrance workplace, broadcast workforce and leisure crew, in addition to followers. Tapping into their ideas as they acquired new info and made selections in actual time, Pause the Recreation highlights how key figures acted with well being and security as the highest precedence throughout the tense moments earlier than tip-off.

Dr. Strack, who’s the Thunder’s VP of Human and Participant Efficiency, wasn’t alone as he raced heart courtroom to ship the knowledge that Jazz heart Rudy Gobert had examined optimistic for COVID-19. Alongside of him had been Rob Hennigan, VP of Basketball Operations, and Amanda Inexperienced, VP/Group Counsel.

Whereas Dr. Strack made contact with the officers, Hennigan alerted the teaching employees and Inexperienced looked for Thunder Chairman Clayton I. Bennett. As Inexperienced, carrying enterprise apparel, sprinted from the courtroom again in the direction of the locker room, she tripped and fell, bloodying her knees. Selecting herself again up, she brushed herself off and encountered Bennett and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, who occurred to be within the enviornment that evening for a Chamber of Commerce assembly. Main the decision-making course of all through the night had been Bennett and Thunder Govt Vice President and Basic Supervisor Sam Presti, who remained vigilant and ready for all contingencies within the lead as much as the check outcome and labored with the NBA league workplace to postpone the sport.

Pause the Recreation faucets into the idea of time as a central characteristic of disaster administration, together with stopping a way of panic by making cautious, deliberate decisions. In an unprecedented scenario, these parts had been notably key in managing a constructing stuffed with 18,000 followers, all of whom left the sector that evening with out incident.

Thunder gamers had been escorted out of the sector with the assistance of the group’s Director of Safety Paul Huggins – a 26-year veteran of the New Jersey state troopers who additionally aided within the response to assaults on the World Commerce Heart in 1993 and 2001. Moving into a brand new state of heightened nervousness as they exited the sector, some gamers doused their vehicles with hand sanitizer, others like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort had been on the telephone with frightened members of the family. All of the whereas, Presti, Bennett and metropolis officers like Mayor David Holt had been busy making an attempt to offer help to the Utah Jazz, who had been remoted inside Chesapeake Power Area’s customer’s locker room.

Although they didn’t have an up shut and private view of the dramatic occasions in Oklahoma Metropolis, the NBA and people all through america checked out COVID-19 otherwise due to what occurred inside Chesapeake Power Area on March 11, 2023. Now, as COVID-19 instances proceed to drop and vaccinations are on the rise, OKCThunder Movies’ Pause the Recreation gives a glance again on the proverbial canary within the coal mine – the second that knowledgeable the sports activities world of what was looming forward.

An unforgettable evening instructed by the eyes of Thunder gamers and employees.

Catch the free out of doors screening of “Pause the Recreation” on Saturday night, June twelfth, on the @deadCenter Movie Pageant!

| https://t.co/Vo3ojVtDxf pic.twitter.com/Jr0DXxjuEj

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 4, 2023